Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“I was going to give you another chance to—”
“Save it.” Matteo said. “Don’t move. Don’t speak. Just listen to Carter, or he’ll turn you over to me.”
I glanced at Matteo. Why was him backing me up like that so fucking hot?
My father was seething. “Carter, tell this man to leave.”
“No. Do as he says.”
“I will not be spoken to like this.”
Matteo took a step closer to him. “What you will do is sit back down in that chair, keep your hands where I can see them, and listen to what your son has to say.”
“He’s not my son. He never was.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Matteo said. “You don’t have any sons, do you?”
When my father started to rise again, Matteo loudly clicked off the safety of his weapon.
My father settled back into his chair. “You can’t prove any of this.”
“Actually, we can,” I said. “I can also prove plenty of other things you’ve done. I’ve been keeping tabs on you. I was biding my time, but things seem to have come to a head now. It’s time for you to pay for your relationship with the cartel and for interfering in a military mission, not to mention the other unsavory things you’ve had your hands in all these years.”
“I don’t believe you really have proof, and even if you do, you won’t use it. You’re not going to bring down your own family.”
“But like you just said, you aren’t my family. You can’t have it both ways. Speaking of family, I went looking for Landon this morning and saw he’d run like the coward he is. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I told him to stay in town, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“So, both of your fake sons are finally realizing how to stand up for ourselves.”
My father snorted. “He’s learning how to be even more of a fool than he’s always been.”
“I thought I was the fool.”
“You were stubborn and ungrateful. You never saw your real potential.”
“And I never looked like you.”
My father nodded. “Landon is much easier to pass off as my own.”
“Where is he?”
“I told you I don’t know. I’m looking for him too.”
“You knew he was going to ignore you and run, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “He makes his own decisions now.”
“There’s no way in hell I believe that. Everything he does is directed by you.”
“Not everything.”
I studied my father for a moment. He was referring to something specific. “What does that mean? What did he ever do without your consent?” Even now I wanted him to say Landon had gone after me against my father’s wishes, even though I knew my father had sanctioned it. Why the fuck did I care?
“I never sanctioned what he did to your mother.”
I staggered backward, and Matteo grabbed my arm. No way. He couldn’t mean…. “What did he do?”
“You know exactly what he did. You’ve suspected me of it for years.”
“He killed her?” My voice cracked on the last word.
“He hated you so much. He always feared you’d take his place. He thought killing her would mean I’d never have another child.”
I swallowed down bile. I had to hold it together until I was done here. I could fall apart later when it was just Matteo and me. “You knew how he felt, and you did nothing to stop him.”
“I knew he resented you both, but I didn’t think he’d go that far. I told him he was my heir and always would be.”
“You knew he’d done it. You knew it wasn’t an accident, but you said it was an accident.”
“I wasn’t going to lose the only child I could claim as my own.”
“You know I’ll kill him for that.”
“No. I’m going to deal with you and your stupid friends, then carry on as if you never existed.”
“You’re in no position to do that. I know far too much, so do my friends, and so does X.”
“What?” My father actually looked unnerved. My gamble had paid off. He obviously did know of X’s reputation for eliminating disgusting men like him. As I’d guessed, even my father doubted he had the power to fight X, whose money and resources made him look almost poor in comparison.
Matteo raised his brows and tilted his head toward my father. “Would you like me to finish him off?”
My father held up his hands, and Matteo leveled the gun at his head. All I had to do was say the word and he’d put a bullet in my father’s brain.
I wanted to end things now, but X had been right. I needed to do this rationally, and now wasn’t the time. “Not now. We’ll give him a chance to be of use to us. We’ve got all the evidence we need to bring him down. Even if he doesn’t realize it yet, we’ve already won. I’d rather let him live knowing he’s nothing.”